coolant in footwell

[grumpy d22]

gday all,
woke up this morning to go to work and had a bad smell in the cab, after checking myself (all good), i cleaned out the waeco and still the smell was there, then i noticed that there was coolant in the passenger side footwell, so after ringing a few people it was assumed that it is the heater core that is leaking.
i am taking it to my local dealer under warranty, after speaking to my mechanic (ex nissan) he said its a big job, front seats out, dash out then change over the parts and put it all back.......
will keep posted as to what happens.

 

[KraftyPg]

See if you'd brought a D40 liquid in the foot well would just be the overflow pipe and easily fixed

 

[Krankin]

Yep, 'sounds' like the heater and/or hoses gone.
Thats a bummer,
coolant in the cab.
Your gonna have to have any carpet/underlay replaced cause the smell wont go away even when the the coolant is dryed out, as for the heater/hoses, what a bastard job...
lucky its a warranty job.

 

[grumpy d22]

update, went into main north nissan today, after absolutely refusing going to another 'dealer' in the mawson lakes area, i rang the service department and they were flat out at main north and said they could fit me in to 'have a look', any way went down there and 'the look' turned into one of the mechanics coming out taking my car and rerouting the hoses that go thru the firwall so they bypass the heater coil.
which means my car is back on the road minus the heater, and then he said they will order the parts in and give me call when they can do it, with my car being off the road for two days.
awesome job MAIN NORTH NISSAN thanks. now just wait for phone call to get it fixed under warranty.
krankin will try to get carpet replaced too under warranty if that smell wont go away like you are saying. cheers rick.

 

[Krankin]

Keep us posted to what actually is stuffed, as I too have the '08 model and its a worry if the heater core has let go so early in its lifespan..



and its generally good to run the heater occasionally even through the hot months to keep coolant through the system.





.

 

[grumpy d22]

yeah, i thought i should post the topic only because it was so unusual.
fyi my 08 has done about 75000km and being in adelaides northern suburbs the heater doesnt get much of a workout, so i will def run it periodically now, thanks for the advice.

 

[Krankin]

yeah, i thought i should post the topic only because it was so unusual.
fyi my 08 has done about 75000km and being in adelaides northern suburbs the heater doesnt get much of a workout, so i will def run it periodically now, thanks for the advice.

and just as important, run the A/C through the cold months.






.

 

[Old.Tony]

Can I ask - what kind of fluid have you added to the radiator? Have you ever topped it up yourself?

 

[grumpy d22]

note i have included a pic of what the mechanic at main north did in fifteen mins to get me back on the road, pretty simple really, the inlet and outlet pipes for the heater thru the firewall are visible and the looped hose is what he did.
handy in a breakdown i guess, im gunna keep that bit of hose when the repairs are finished.

 

[grumpy d22]

tony, i haven't touched the coolant since i bought the car, leaving that up to the regular servicing, initially done by nissan, then later by my own mechanic.
so to answer your question i can only hope they have used the correct grade of coolant, but in saying that in the last couple of days i have noticed that the air con was a little bit 'musky' smelling when i have turned it on.
so who knows maybe thats an underlying pre-emptive warning to what happened

 

[Old.Tony]

I was more thinking about having topped it up with tap water, or worse still, tank water. Doing that could cause parts of the system to corrode very rapidly, which would easily be the thing that created your problem.

The musky smell might come from drawing in air from wet carpet. If it smells a bit like wet socks, that could be your culprit. I'd point that out to the guys, they'll have to order the carpet in to replace it.